A University of Colorado Boulder-led research team has discovered that two protein receptors in the central nervous system team up to respond to morphine and cause unwanted neuroinflammation, a finding with implications for improving the efficacy of the widely used painkiller while decreasing its abuse potential.
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The first report from the fledgling National End of Life Care Intelligence Network warns that the victims of liver disease are getting younger, with deaths increasing among people in their forties. Deaths rose from 9,231 in 2001 to 11,575 in 2009; some 60% of these were men, and 90% of them were under 70. Deaths are more common in England's northern regions marked by high unemployment and low educational achievement.
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Hallucinogenic drug LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) could help alcoholics give up drinking, according to an analysis of studies performed in the 1960s. A study, presented in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, looked at data from six trials and more than 500 patients. It said there was a “significant beneficial effect” on alcohol abuse, which lasted several months after the drug was taken.
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A new survey finds that adults aged 45 and over are more than three times as likely to drink alcohol almost every day as those under 45. This could mean that the middle aged population is ignoring the serious health risks associated with excessive drinking. The age disparity is most pronounced among women. Those aged 65 and over are 12 times more likely than those aged between 16 and 24 to drink on a near-daily basis according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
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A Centre for Alcohol Policy Research report, released today, found 95 per cent of people surveyed were unable to correctly identify the Australian guidelines for safe drinking levels. Between 30 and 50 per cent were unable to even provide an estimate.
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Varenicline is unique among anti-addiction medications in the way it affects the brain. Like nicotine, varenicline activates a specific receptor for a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, but it does so less intensely than the active ingredient of cigarettes does. The net effect is that the drug seems to help by both cutting cravings and making the formerly desired drug less pleasant — without making non-drug pleasures less intense. Alcohol works on the same chemical receptors in the brain as nicotine, and it may enhance the pleasurable effects of smoking.
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A new editorial released this week offers clarity and structure on confusing drug and alcohol addiction terminology for prescribers, users and regulators. "Through a glass darkly: can we improve clarity about mechanism and aims of medications in drug and alcohol treatments?" is published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the official journal of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, published by SAGE.
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A new study has shown that drinking alcohol causes a pleasant feeling because it releases endorphins, the brain’s natural opioids. It adds that problem drinkers differ from social drinkers in the way alcohol affects one part of the brain. The report appeared Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine.
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Those who drink regularly are advised to abstain from alcohol for at least two days a week. A committee of MPs has found current drinking guidelines are unclear and need to be revised. Currently the “sensible limits” for drinking, which were defined 25 years ago, are 21 units of alcohol a week for men and 14 for women. But the report by the Science and Technology Committee found many people do not know how much a unit is.
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The British Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered officials to develop a scheme in England to stop the sale of alcohol at below 40p to 50p a unit in shops and supermarkets. There could also be a more sophisticated system of taxes based on the number of alcohol units contained in the drink. Both options would cost drinkers an estimated extra £700 million a year, with any extra tax revenue potentially going to the NHS.
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The cost of alcohol must be increased to stem the thousands of drink-related diseases diagnosed each year, a group of medical experts said on Wednesday. Debate is on the rationality of unit pricing of alcohol across Britain.
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A latest study has shown that female alcoholics suffer damage to the part of their brain that controls moods, impulses and sleep three times faster than their male counterparts.
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During a White House ceremony next month, Thomas L. Kash, PhD, assistant professor in the department of pharmacology and the UNC Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine will receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
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Scripps Research Institute Professor Cindy Ehlers has been awarded a prestigious $3.6 million MERIT Award grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the risk factors for alcoholism in Native Americans.
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New research shows that the more off-license stores a town boasts of, the greater the number of under-age drinkers who are likely to end up in hospital as a result of harmful drinking.
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Figures reveal that 1.1 million people in England were admitted to hospital in 2009/10 because of alcohol – a rise of 879 per day compared with five years ago.
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A new study reveals addiction of a new kind – addiction to tanning. Researchers have believed for several years that tanners exhibit similar behavior to alcoholics and drug addicts.
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According to new research from New Zealand, people who work longer hours can have more than triple the risk of alcohol abuse and addiction.
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Acute stress is thought to precipitate alcohol drinking. Yet the ways that acute stress can increase alcohol consumption are unclear. A new study investigated whether different phases of response to an acute stressor can alter the subjective effects of alcohol. Findings indicate bi-directional relationships between alcohol and stress.
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